Water Fern
by a Wiccan
Summary: Pleaced on a team with two of the scariest kids in her class, Shida makes her way through the shinobi ranks while dealing with a broken family and discoveres friends and love as she builds new bonds and new strength
1. Chapter 1

Shida stood in front of the academy class awkwardly as the sensei addressed the class of ten year olds.

"Starting from today we will have new student, I hope you all treat her nicely. Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"I-I'm Mizu Shida. P-pleased to meet you."

"Welcome to Konoha Academy, why don't you take a seat next to Hinata over there?" Shida nodded and made her way to the girl.

"H-hello." Hinata greeted softly. Shida looked at her in quiet surprise.

"H-hi." Hinata gave the shy girl a shy smile, "A-ano, you have p-pretty eys, Shida-san." The new girl's face lit up.

"A-arigato H-Hinata-san. I like y-your eyes t-too." Hinata smiled and said thank you. That was the start of a long friendship.

BREAK

TWO YEARS LATER

Shida and Hinata sat together as they waited for Iruka to finish naming teams. Neither of the girls had been called yet and both hoped that they would be on the same team.

"M-maybe we'll be on the s-same team as N-naruto." Shida said to her friend, well aware of Hinata's crush on the loud blond. She smiled when Hinata turned red.

"Uzamaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka's voice dashed that hope. But the girls still hoped they would be on the same team. A few more teams were made, and then,

"Aburami Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuga Hinata." The girls hung their heads in depression.

"Asobi Kasai, Ryoken Kuro, and Mizu Shida." Shida let out a squeak of fear before covering her mouth with her hands. Hinata looked at her in sympathy. The two boys Shida had been paired with were scary in appearance and personality.

Kasai was a bit of a pyromaniac and had orange eyes and black hair. He could often be found playing with fire. He normally wore black pants and a grey t-shirt. Kasai had an intimidating aura around him.

Kuro was well known for getting into fights. He had a shaggy mop of brown hair and golden eyes. He wore standard black ninja pants and a tan t-shirt. He had an almost feral aura around him. He and Kasai were firm friends.

They both turned to Shida when they heard her squeak. Her face was burning as she stared at the ground. Kuma-sensei was to be their new sensei. When Iruka sent everybody off with their new sensei's Shida hurried out of the room with a quick good bye to Hinata. Shida and her two team mates met up with their sensei who took them to the cliffs overlooking the village. Their sensei was a tall and muscular man who wore standard blue ninja pants and a black tank top, over which he wore a flak jacket.

"Yo. I'm Kuma-sensei. Starting from today I'll be your new sensei. I hope we work well together." He had a booming voice but it was jovial. "I want everybody to introduce themselves. I'll go first so you know how it goes. I'm Kuma-sensei. I like training. I dislike chocolate. My hobbies are training and fishing. My dream is to be an awesome sensei." It was Kuro who spoke up next. He had a slightly deep voice.

"My name is Ryoken Kuro. I like eating. I dislike writing. My hobbies are tracking and hiking. My dream is to be a strong hunter Nin."

Kasai went next. Like Kuro, he too had a deep voice, though his was mellower. "I'm Asobi Kasai. I like playing with fire. I dislike sour food. My hobbies are reading and running. My dream is also to be hunter nin." He looked at Shida and gestured for her to go.

"I-I'm Mizu S-Shida. I L-like f-flowers and s-spicy f-food. I dislike s-sweets. M-my hobbies a-are s-swimming and s-setting t-traps. My d-dream is to be a k-kunochi blade m-master."

Kuma-sensei clapped his hands and spoke, "Excellent. How about we do a quick test of your skills and then go out to eat before we call it a day?" Kuro cheered and Kasai agreed eagerly while Shida agreed in her stuttering voice.

Kuro was the first to go. He stood in front of a target a couple meters away. He did a hand sign and said, "Kiba no harikēn" the jutsu hit the target and left a few gashes in it. Kasai went next.

"Hi no kaze." A small wave of fire hit the target, causing it to burst into flames.

"A-ano, I d-don't k-now m-many jutsu's." Kuma-sensei smiled at her.

"It's alright, just show up what you know." She nodded and focused on her target with her katana in both hands.

"Ha no odori." She swept her blade down in one quick movement. At first nothing happened. Then, thunk, thunk. Her target had split down the center and fell off of the log it was attached to. Their sensei congratulated them and they four of them made their way to a small café.

Kuma-sensei told them to order what ever they wanted since it was on him. Kuro got an order of fried fish while their sensei got grilled fish. Kasai ordered some rice and eggs. Shida got soaked spicey chicken. Kuro sniffed it from her right side.

"Oh, Shida, what's that?" He asked her curiously.

"B-baked b-breaded chicken s-soaked in a h-hot sauce a-and s-sprinkled with s-spices. W-would y-you like t-to try s-some?" She shyly offered. When Kuro took a piece, she then offered some to Kasai, who also was curious about it. Their sensei declined with a knowing smile.

The two boys popped the pieces into their mouths. Within seconds they were gasping and fanning their mouths, eyes watering.

"Ah, it burns!" Kuro cried and Shida gasped.

"S-sorry!" she handed them some celery and they chomped on it to ease their burning mouths before drinking all of their water.

"That was intense." Kuro panted.

"S-sorry, I d-didn't k-know it w-would b-be t-too s-spicy f-for y-you b-both." Shida stuttered out. Kasai noticed Shida's stutter got worse but didn't say anything about it. Instead he sighed and looked mournfully at Kuro.

"We have been out toughed by a girl." Kuro sighed as he replied, "Yeah. Damn Shida, you really must be something to handle that." Shida blushed at the compliment and loked down, missing the grin the two boys exchanged. Kuma-sensei watched them out of the corner of his eye, a small smile on his face. He knew what the two boys were doing.

Shida was painfully shy so they were trying to raise her confidence. At the same time they were trying to show they weren't as scary as she thought.

BREAK

Soon the four of them left, Kuma-sensei went in one direction while the two boys decided to walk Shida home. She looked like a doll to the boys, both of them being at least a head taller than her. She was fair skinned and had shoulder length dark brown hair and large, innocent blue eyes. The boys were getting her to talk, trying to ease her shyness around them.

"Oh, I know! Why don't we play the question game?" Kuro exclaimed excitedly. Kasai sighed at his friend's attempt to ease Shida, who had jumped at his sudden exclamation, into around them. None the less, the small girl agreed.

"Ok, Shida, what is your favorite color?" She thought about it for a while before coming up with the answer.

"p-purple."

"Favorite animal?"

"B-blue jays."

The game continued on for a while, they three of them asking random questions until they reached Shida's house, where she waved them god bye and went inside.

"Mom, I'm h-home!" Her mother walked out of the kitchen. Her mother had long black hair and twinkling blue eyes. There was a large smile on her face despite the lines already on it. Shida told her mother everything about her day.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Shida ran out the door, calling good bye to her mother. Today was the day that they began training. Despite her nervousness, the girl was excited. As she was hurrying down the road she spotted Hinata.

"H-Hinata!" the girl turned when she heard her name being called and saw Shida running down the road, a large smile on her face. Hinata stopped and waved, waiting for her friend to catch up. Shida nearly tackled the girl over in a hug and the two of them laughed.

"H-how w-as your first day?" Hinata inquired.

"It w-was really nice. K-Kuma-sensei took us out to eat. Kasai-san and Kuro-san a-are both v-very nice. W-what about you, Hina-chan?"

"Kurenai-sensei i-is very kind. S-shino-san a-and K-kiba-san are nice as well." The two girls continued talking as they walked to meet their teams. The two of them were still smiling when they saw their team mates up ahead. The four boys had apparently been talking and noticed the girls when Akamaru started barking. When the girls got to them, they all said their good byes and headed their separate ways to their training grounds. On the way, Kuro began talking to Shida.

"I didn't know you were friends with Hinata."

"Y-yeah. W-we have b-been b-best friends s-since I c-came here."

"You aren't from here?" Shida shook her head, replying,

"I-I was t-ten when I c-came to K-Konoha."

Kasai was the one who spoke up next. "Kuro and I are good friends with Kiba, and Shino's not that bad of a guy once you get past the bugs. The six of us will probably wind up hanging out a lot."

Shida beamed a smile, "T-that would be n-nice."

Soon the three of them arrived at the training field, and Kuma arrived shortly after them. With him he had a katana. Immediately he set them to work. They ran laps, did push up and crunches. They practiced justus and did target practice. By mid-day they were worn out and sweating.

Kuro flopped on the ground in the shade. "Hey, Kuma-sensei, can we take a break?" the golden eyed boy pleaded. Beside him, Kasai also sank down to his knees. Shida was leaning against a tree, panting.

Kuma hummed for a little bit before nodding. "Alright, take a little break and get something to eat. Meet back here in two hours." He disappeared and the two boys struggled to their feet.

"Hey, Shida." Kuro said, still out of breath. The girl looked at him. "Want to come with us?"

"S-sure" the blue eyed girl gasped out and the three of them made their way back to the village to a tea shop.

* * *

The three genin sat outside the tea shop at one of the picnic tables. They had just finished eating and now Shida was sipping iced tea while Kuro and Kasai talked.

"Man, that work out was brutal." Kuro complained. Kasai agreed.

"M-maybe we'll get u-used to it after a w-while, m-making us s-stronger." Shida offered and Kasai looked thoughtful.

"Ah! You're right! Shida-chan is so smart!" Kuro exclaimed loudly, startling the girl, who blushed a little at the compliment. Kasai looked like he was mulling over something in his head. Kuro looked over at him.

"Hey, if you think too much, your head might explode." Kasai rolled his eyes.

"That only happens to you." Kasai ignored his friend's protest and looked over at Shida, who was shyly drinking her iced tea. "Shida, you were the only one still on their feet by the time we got a break. Granted you were just as worn out as us, but still you weren't on the ground."

The girl looked at the ground and tried waving it away, stating that she was using a tree for support. Kuro got in on the conversation. "He's right Shida-chan. Even if you were leaning on the tree, you were still on your feet. It was incredible." Shida shook her head again before speaking.

"B-before I m-moved here with m-mother, m-my clan w-would train me e-everyday i-instead of m-me g-going to s-school."

"I see. Well then that mean Shida-chan has more discipline than us." Kuro said, nodding his head with his hands on his hips. Then he paused, thinking of something.

"By the way, why did you move here Shida-chan?" Both boys looked at her curiously. The girl began to stammer worse than ever as they waited.

"Break time is over!" out of nowhere, Kuma appeared on their table, a large grin on his face. Shida let out a little shriek as she jumped backwards and the two boys shouted as they fell backwards. He laughed at their reactions

"Time to get back to training. Team eight will be sparing with us. Shida, you spar with Hinata."

"Y-yes sir!" She ran off, a smile on her face." Kuma looked back at the boys.

"Kasai, you're with Shino, Kuro, you're with Kiba. Get moving." They jumped up and ran after their team mate to the training grounds, all exhaustion forgotten in the excitement of being able to spar. Kuma watched them go before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, worry etched on his face.

* * *

"H-hina-chan!" Shida and Hinata ran towards each other, nearly knocking over each other in a hug. They laughed and started talking as the four boys greeted each other. A few minutes later their sensei's showed up. Kuma shouted to them at Kurenai's go ahead.

"Alright! Kasai and Shino are sparing against each other first, then Kiba and Kuro. The girls will go after that. Ready, begin!"

Everyone except Kasai and Shino leapt to the outside of the clearing, leaving the two of them in the center. For a long moment neither of them moved, and then bugs erupted from Shino's sleeves at the same time that Kasai lit a lighter. A wall of flames rose up to meet the insects, stopping them in their tracks as they moved to avoid the fire.

For the next few minutes the two of them blocked each other's attacks, neither getting through to the other. It ended with Shino sending all of his bugs out and Kasai, creating a huge wall of flames. Kasai leapt through the fire at Shino, knocking him down and ending the match. They stood and shook hands while their team mates clapped.

"C-congratulations K-kasai." The boy smiled and thanked Shida. Next up was Kiba and Kuro. They both grinned and raced to the center of the clearing. As soon as Kurenai gave the command to start, they raced at each other. The two of them wound up wrestling each other to the ground. Kasai sighed.

"They fight like animals." Shino nodded in agreement. Kiba and Kuro were wrestling around like dogs while Akamaru ran around them, nipping Kuro whenever he got the chance. Neither was getting the upper hand in the battle. This went on for several more minutes before Kuma-sensei called a draw. Now it was time for Hinata and Shida to spar.

The two made their way to the center of the clearing, waiting for the command to begin. When it was given, Hinata activated her byakugan and Shida drew her sword. They clashed together before breaking apart. Shida was on the constant move, dodging the chakra laced hits while making her own attacks.

Kuma and Kurenai stood next to the boys and were talking. "A Hyuga, Kurenai? This might be an interesting fight?" the woman nodded.

"The two girls are a good match. Is that Shida?"

"That's her alright."

"She's gotten stronger since she first came here. Is that her blade? Or is it just a regular blade?"

"That's just a regular blade. She won't get her own blade until she's a little stronger."

The four boys were looking at the adults curiously before being drawn back to the fight. The two girls against each other were incredible. Like a deadly dance, they moved back and forth. Then it was over. Shida's blade was at Hinata's throat and Hinata's hand was poised at Shida's heart. It was a draw.

The girls separated with a smile before walking back to their teams. Kiba and Kuro ran over to meet them, Kasai and Shino followed at a slower pace.

"That was awesome!" Kuro shouted, Kiba nodding his head in agreement.

"You girls have got some moves." Kiba added. The two girls blushed and stammered their thanks. Kasai came over as well, congratulating them. Shino followed after him. They all talked for a few minutes before Kuma called out to them.

"Alright you lot, we're all done for the day." Kurenai confirmed it and the two of them left.

"Me and Shino are going to take Hinata home. See you guys around. Bye Shida." Kiba said as they all made their farewells and left.

"B-bye K-kiba-san. Bye Hina-chan, Bye S-shino-san." Shida and her two team mates left as well, the two boys escorting her home.

* * *

"So, Shida-chan, do you talk with Kiba a lot?" Kuro asked slyly. He laughed when Shida blushed hard and stammered to the point she couldn't even form a word. By now they had reached the girl's house and she called her good bye and ran inside. The boys laughed and started walking home. A few minutes later Kuro shouted.

"Hey, we never found out why Shida moved here."


	3. Chapter 3

Shida had just walked out the door when she heard her name being called. She smiled and ran over to her two team mates. Like usual they had come to get her. The three of them had been a team now for almost a month and the girl was now used to being around them.

In the month they had been together, the two boys had worked to booster Shida's confidence and though she still stuttered a lot, she was far more confident around them than she had been.

Kasai and Kuro had taken it upon themselves to spend as much time with their team mate as possible. And the boys had learned a lot about the girl in return. How she trained alone with her katana when she was not with the others, how she could identify most plants, and how she was able to set traps that Kuro was constantly walking into. It had gotten to the point that the girl had started deactivating her traps when the boys came over.

Though they had yet to learn why Shida had moved to the village yet. When ever the subject came up, the small girl clamed up. Eventually the two had stopped asking. They had, to their amusement, discovered that Shida got a kick out of sneaking up on people and tackling them, much like she did to Hinata everyday.

Likewise, Shida learned about the two boys. She no longer feared the two of them. They were known for getting into fights and could be scary if they wanted to be, but Shida was never scared of them anymore. She learned that they both loved swimming and that Kuro was terrible at spotting traps, even though they were in the same spot everyday.

Currently the three of them were walking towards training. Out of the corner of their eyes, Kuro and Kasai saw Shida shift ever so slightly. They must have been close to Hinata's team. Shida took off just before the two boys spotted the team. Shida caught Hinata just as Akamaru started to bark happily, alerting the girl just seconds before Shida caught her.

The two girls laughed. It had become routine for the two teams to meet up like this. The four boys greeted each other as the girls chatted. The four boys had begun to relish these moments. It was times like this that the two girls were not as shy as they normally were. None would ever admit it but the boys had become fiercely protective of the girls.

"Kurenai-sensei said we have another spar with you guys later tomorrow." Kasai nodded at Kiba's information. Kuma-sensei had told them the same thing. They continued to talk until it was time to go to their separate training grounds.

* * *

"Morning every one!" Kuma-sensei boomed as his three students approached. They replied their greetings.

"Right, today as you know, we will have your spar with team eight. But before that, I want you three to practice your jutsu after you practice everything else. The three of you have come a fair way since you started as a team, but you still have a ling way to go. I have some business to attend to so you are on your own in the mean time." With that, Kuma-sensei disappeared in puff of smoke.

"Man, so we have to train ourselves?" Kuro complained and Kasai sighed.

"I wonder how we go about this." The black haired boy wondered. Kuro's eyes suddenly took on an excited gleam. The brunet gave an exclamation.

"Shida, you can train us like you used to train in your clan!"

"E-eh? A-are you s-sure that w-would be a g-good idea?" The girl asked, a little surprised and unsure. Kasai looked deep in thought.

"It might actually be a very good idea. Out of the three of us, you have better chakra control and have an easier time staying on your feet after a long practice."

"B-but the t-two of you a-are s-stronger a-and faster."

"True but you are smarter. I can't spot a trap for the life of me and my concentration is off all the time." It was Kuro who stated this.

"And my chakra control is less than good." Kasai added. Shida sighed. They were not going to let her back down from this.

"A-alright. B-but it isn't n-normal training." The boys nodded and they got to work.

* * *

"Damn. What hell did they put her through as a kid?" Kuro panted out next to Kasai. The other boy shook his head, too out of breath to respond. Shida was waiting for them up high in a tree, only a light sheen of sweat on her and her breath beginning to even out.

They had done a light taijutsu workout and some serious stretching. Kuro did not even think people could bend the way Shida had. Then they did a few jutsu's to see where they were at. After that they began working on their chakra.

To begin with, Shida had explained to the boys the principles of chakra control. Then they began chakra control exorcises. Climbing a tree without hands. Shida looked down at them worriedly.

"A-are you a-alright?" She called down. The two boys straightened up and Kuro flashed a smile up at the girl.

"Don't worry, we'll be up there soon." It was true. Each attempt brought the boys closer and closer to their girl. Shida, having absolute faith in her team mates nodded.

* * *

"Ha, I told you we would be up soon." Kuro and Kasai were currently seated next to Shida high up in a tree. They sat there for a few minutes before Kuro spoke up again.

"How do we get down?"

* * *

"H-hina-chan, that was really good." The two girls were sitting in the grass together with the boys. They had all just finished sparring and were now waiting for their sensei's to show up.

"T-thank you, y-you too." They shared a small smile.

"Nice work everybody." The six genin looked up to see their sensei's approaching. They all stood up. The two sensei's stopped before them, exchanging a look.

"It was your idea, you tell them." Kurenai-sensei said. Kuma-sensei sighed.

"Right, well, we have decided to enroll you all in the Chunin exams."

* * *

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